Visiting from house to house is the most controversial
evangelism strategy I use. If I stood on
a street corner with a sandwich board and a microphone, perhaps that would be
the most controversial. What I mean by
controversial, is that it spawns a lot of negative reactions in ministerial colleagues. It’s the one I take the most grief for, and
have to defend the most. But, I also get
a lot of encouragement. So people are divided on this one. Two interesting tid-bits: the most
encouragement I get is from people whose doors I knock on! They are glad someone took the time to come
by and is out doing the work! I also get
a lot of people telling me it doesn’t work, and yet those same people have
never tried it, much less done it consistently.
We took a vow as a United Methodist elder to “visit from
house to house.” We love to dodge
this. Cynically, I have had a number of
UM leaders tell me those are “historic” questions that don’t really fit who we
are today. Others confine it to visiting
people who are members of your church.
Nope. It’s the shepherd roaming
the hills to gather the harassed and scattered flock. So you go from
door-to-door. And it works.
But you have to do it consistently, over the long haul. In my first church, when I started this, I
had a number of people say, “we tried that and it didn’t work.” I asked them what they did. They went out one time, two by two (because
that’s what the Bible says), with some fresh baked bread that had a card that
said, “The Bread of Life.” “And no one
came,” they told me.
I had to break the tough news to them. You never engaged with our neighbors about Jesus
beofre, you went out one time with fresh bread (which is a great idea) but
there was no follow up. The folks they
visited literally had no clue what it was about!
What you have to do in visitation is be consistent. Go back again. If the people you talk to are remotely
receptive, keep going back, with an invitation to services, to a special event,
to a cookout at your house…
I will probably be talking about this forever and telling
this same story, so bear with me. When I
was appointed to my first church, I had no clue about anything! Larry Baker me a map of Clark County, one of
those really detailed road maps. One day
driving back out into the country from town, I heard the Lord speak, “Every
house to the county line is mine.” I
kind of went a little farther, into Estill and Powell counties, but I reasoned
those places belonged to the Lord, too!
I got to the house, made a bookmark on card stock that had basic info
about our church.
Then I started systematically visiting every church in a
large swath of the county I had decided was my church’s area. I went to every house at least once, most
houses more than that, and the houses where someone was receptive to me and the
invitation to church, I went to those houses many, many times.
The reasons visitation works is that you find people you don’t
even know exist. You talk to people you would never get to. Is it time consuming? Yes.
It proves its worth when someone comes because you took the time to come
to them, talk to them, pray with them, they know you love them enough to break
down barriers! And they tell their
friends and family who also come!
Remember to take church members with you and teach them how
to do this. If you get some help, oh man
can you cover some ground. You can hit
hundreds of houses in a few hours with 3 or 4 people. Remember… to go back. People who had not yet come to church would
call me their pastor. I would get called to hospitals of jails on
behalf of people I did not know well, but had stopped by their house. I was the only pastor they knew. We had 7 people come to our church because I
visited their family members in jail. I was called to do funerals and got to
minister to even more people in a family because they called the pastor who
would visit them.
The how to:
Make some kind of card, not on printer paper. You need something that can stand up to being
placed in a door, or held between a screen door and the main door. I have used bookmarks on card stock. With just basic information about the church—contact
info, directions to get there, service times, etc. Lately I have been using a tract from the
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the classic “bridge” illustration. Then I use an address label to put the church
info on. They get our info and a really good basic intro to believing in Jesus.
Rehearse what you are going to say when someone opens the door. “Hi, my name is Aaron. I am the pastor at Morehead United Methodist
Church. I am just going out in the
community, getting to know people, inviting them to church. Do you have a church that you go to?” That’s it.
Their answer might lead to some more conversation. If they seem interested, I make a note of it
in a notebook I keep for the purpose.
Then I write them a note, thanking them for their time and again
inviting them. And then I know that that
is a place I will go back to.
That’s it. If you
will do visitation regularly, and consistently (meaning all your life), you
will see church growth and conversion.
I will tell some other stories later that help show how it’s
done and the fruit that comes from it!
